The Healing of Gale Hawthorne
by XxXBeautifulXxXDreamerXxX
Summary: Coral has always been a little rough around the edges, but so has Gale. They work together for every reason that they shouldn't, they're the sanity of each other. This is a collection of little moments between them that have helped them regain their sanity.
1. Nightmares

**This is something I've been thinking about for a while now. I really love Gale's character and am forever going to be disappointed with how he was treated in Mockingjay. I want him to have a life so that's what this story is going to be about.**

**I only own Coral and the plotlines of the chapters.**

**In my head, Coral is curly-haired Anna-Sophia Robb.**

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><p>I've gotten the nightmares under control enough that I don't wake up screaming anymore. Instead, I shoot straight up like an arrow trying to pull air into my oxygen-depleted lungs. I'm afraid that that's as good as I'm ever going to get, they weren't lying when they said that the Games change you.<p>

My name is Coral Taylor, and I'm the victor of the 72nd annual Hunger Games. I'm from District 4, not that that matters anymore. Ever since Katniss' display in the Quarter Quell, there are no more districts.

Don't think for a second I blame her, it's quite the opposite. I was at the meeting when Plutarch Heavensbee told us about his plan to get her out. That was the main reason I'd volunteered for Annie, that and because I knew Finnick couldn't handle her being there and having to fight against her.

It wasn't hard to be on her side, once you got to know Katniss. She had a hard outer shell, but she was selfless in a way that I greatly admired. She said she fought so hard for her sister, but I knew it was more than that even if she didn't. She fought for everyone that had been used by the Capitol, everyone who couldn't fight for themselves. It was obvious why she was the choice for the Mockingjay.

I was part of Squad 451 with Finnick, Katniss, Peeta Mellark, Gale Hawthorne, and the others. It was terrible, so much like the games that it made my stomach turn. If it wasn't for Gale, talking to me and talking me through the fears I probably wouldn't have made it through it.

Tonight's nightmare was of Finnick and it was a repeat. He was sitting in a chair with his little boy on his lap, singing a song to him that we'd both grown up with. I could hear Annie in the kitchen, banging pots as she tried to cook. It was so amazing and heartwarming that I almost forgot it was a nightmare… until the mutts appeared.

They yanked the baby out of his arms before they tore him and Finnick to pieces. Annie ran into the room screaming, but they left her alone with the scraps of her family and I realized I was just an onlooker. Even though I was awake, her screams were still rattling around in my head so loudly that I felt them in my chest.

"You're getting better at handling your nightmares," Gale's voice said from the darkness beside me. "You don't leave bruises on me anymore."

I knew it was meant to be reassuring, but it didn't make me feel any better. I didn't know how to make him understand that they would never go away. If they weren't nightmares about Finnick or the Squad, they were from the hospital or the Games. Everywhere I went, the Capitol plagued me even if it didn't exist anymore. I knew the other victors felt the same way, Finnick and I used to talk about it before…

"It's because I know you're here with me," I replied, rolling onto my side and searching for his skin in the dark.

I felt his fingers slid between mine as he brought them up to his lips. Gale Hawthorne and I weren't a couple, but we might as well be. He held me when I woke up screaming, pulling me onto his lap and rocking me like a baby until I stopped without making me feel weak or breakable.

He had his own nightmares, but he handled them better than I did. He never woke me when he had them, but I often times woke up the next morning closer to his side or sprawled out across the entire length of his body. He told me that as long as I was close to him, he knew nothing bad could ever happen again.

"Do you want to talk it?" he asked me, pulling me until there was less than an inch between our bodies.

His free hand was running through my hair and massaging my scalp absentmindedly. A memory from the first time we met made me smile. Gale seemed to notice because he asked me what it was about.

"The first time I met you, I thought you were going to be the biggest asshole in the entire world. I thought you had no emotions and were whipped by Katniss," I told him then flinched as I slid a hand under the back of his shirt and ran my fingers over the welts along his skin. "I'm sorry, that was a bad choice of words."

He laughed and brushed his lips against my forehead. "It's also very true; I even have the scars to prove it. You make my emotions come out, Cory."

I continued to rub my fingers gently over the welts on his skin as my eyes got heavy. It was easy to fall back asleep with him rubbing my head and holding me close. I let his steady breathing lull me to sleep again.

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><p>I woke up the next morning to an empty bed, but that happened most mornings. Gale worked in District 2 where he lived, and he was always at work by the time I woke up. I worked in District 4 where I lived and Gale stayed most nights only to travel to 2 for his job.<p>

Now that we no longer had to supply the Capitol, District 4 was very self-sufficient. We had food and one of our smarter inhabitants figured out a way to run our machines on water. I got the job of staying in the nursery with the babies while their parents worked. The main reason I had that job was because Annie wouldn't leave baby Finn with else.

I got up and showered before heading downstairs to make breakfast. I walked towards the kitchen and felt my heart stop beating. There was something different about it, but I couldn't place what it was.

I grabbed the wooden bat that I had sitting against the wall tightly in my hands as I made my way to the kitchen. I was a victor, I could and would defend myself. I stayed close to the wall as I made it to the opening of the kitchen. I held the bat high and brought it down with all my might.

"Whoa, Cory! Whoa, it's me!" Gale shouted, grabbing the bat to avoid having his skull smashed in. "Hey, it's okay. You're not back there, you're here in your house with me and I'm not going to hurt you ever."

"I heard a noise and knew something was different. I got scared, I'm sorry," I told him, dropping the cane and clutching his arm. "I'm so sorry!"

I felt my chest start heaving as dread filled my entire body, a feeling I knew too well. I tried to fight it, but I wasn't strong enough. I was back on that beach with the tribute from 7 over top of me, trying to bash my head in with a big shell. I struck out with every part of my body, hitting every part of him that I could.

"Cory! Cory! Coral!" I heard Gale shouting, but it seemed so distant. "Cory, you're not there anymore. You're back in District 4 with me; you're never going to be there again. Hey, Cory, it's okay, come back to me."

I tried my best to push through the memory, even though it was still as vivid as the day it happened. I could feel the wet air and smell the salt around me; I could even feel the sand giving as my elbows dug into it as I struggled to get free.

I squeezed my eyes shut and remembered where I was. I was standing in my aqua blue kitchen that I'd painted with my parents when I was ten with the little shells stuck to the wall where wallpaper should be. I was in the arms of Gale Hawthorne, the man who put me back together every time I fell apart without any look of disgust on his face.

His eyes that were so deep and brown that they radiated warmth that only I got to see. His rough hands that rubbed over my arms and the skin of my back when I had nightmares. The strong arms that held me together when I so desperately wanted to fall apart. The nimble fingers that helped me knit a blanket for Annie and Finn, laughing and joking with me the entire time with a smile that made my heart skip more than a couple beats.

"Gale," I gasped as the beach memory faded and I came back to the kitchen. I held onto him like I'd held onto my father when he taught me to swim. "Gale, Gale, Gale."

I felt his hands slide underneath me so he could lift me up and sit me on the counter. I reached up to grab his face in my hands and pressed my forehead against his. I forced my breathing to match his as I came back to District 4 and his arms.

"Stay with me, Cory. I'm here and I am so much in love with you," he whispered like he was saying a prayer. "I need you, your flashbacks and nightmares and all. I need your hair wrapped around my fingers and your fingers pressed against my skin. I just need you, please don't leave me."

I just nodded and blindly moved until our mouths were pressed together. He understood what I wanted because he pulled me closer and took the lead. His hands gripped my hips to remove all the space between us so our bodies were pressed together.

I felt the hysterical knot in my chest starting to loosen as the desperation left my body. My arms relaxed against Gale and I slowly moved my mouth from his. Our breathing was ragged, but I was back and safe.

"You deserve someone who's not broken, Gale," I told him tiredly. "You deserve someone who doesn't accidently punch you and hurt you like I do. It's not fair."

"What's not fair is that, when we first got together, I was still in love with Katniss. I was obsessed with her, but you stayed anyway," he said, forcing me to hold his gaze. "I have nightmares at night, too. I can't wake up from them and be okay without you. We're in this together for the long run, Cory."

I didn't know what to say to him so I just relaxed my shoulders and leaned my body forward against his. I looked over his shoulder and saw a glass jar of daises sitting on the counter. That was what was different earlier.

"Gale! You brought me flowers?" I asked, moving away from his body. "Daises are so hard to find right now because it's winter!"

He moved away from me to grab them and hand them to me. "I went to District 3 and traded for them. I know they're your favorites."

That was the side of Gale that only I got to see. Katniss never even got to see this side of him, she would've _hated_ it. He was sensitive and caring for me and it was our little secret. He was afraid it would make people think he was weak.

"I'm so much in love with you, too," I whispered, looking at the white flowers instead of at his molten eyes.

He lifted me off of the counter and spun me around. His laughter was contagious as it filled up my small kitchen. My life wasn't easy nor would it ever be, but with Gale I knew that I could handle it.

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><p><strong>These chapters can be read apart or together, they don't follow a set timeline. They're just going to be random moments in Gale and Coral's life. I hope you guys like it :)<strong>


	2. Soup Stains

To say that I was nervous would be an understatement, terrified would be more exact. I knew a lot about fear and I knew how to handle it in most cases, but this was a whole new ballgame. Katniss Everdeen-Mellark was going to be in my kitchen in exactly thirty minutes for the dinner that I was cooking.

I was friends with Katniss to an extent, as in we'd fought together and bonded over that, but the word acquaintances was more appropriate. I was almost positive that she didn't think I was good enough for Gale, I don't think she thought anyone was. I was too small and weak in her opinion; I'd heard her say it to Finnick before. She was amazed that I'd won my games, even after she'd seen how good I was with a trident. Finnick _had_ been my mentor and trained me to use one efficiently. I could sever body parts, heads included, from ten feet away accurately with minimal pain, or so I hoped.

I knew that dinner had to be perfect so I started planning it three days ago. Gale told me I was crazy, that anything I cooked would be fine, but I didn't just want to be _fine_. I wanted to make Katniss Everdeen eat her words for ever thinking that I wasn't good enough for Gale. I wasn't usually vindictive, but Gale brought out a lot of emotions in me that I didn't know existed.

I started cooking that morning after Gale left for work, making him smile and kiss my head. I'm still not exactly sure when he moved in, but he just didn't leave one night. I knew how big of a step that was for him. He had this thing about always being in charge of himself… I didn't question it because I was the same way sometimes.

I made sure the crab was cooked perfectly before I started to simmer it in the butter sauce that I'd made. I even used tiny shallot onions that I'd heard she enjoyed on her train ride to the Capitol. Tonight was going to go perfectly even if I had to force it.

I had just enough time to change into a soft, cotton dress and swipe some of the colored powder that I'd gotten from my mother years ago onto my eyes before Gale came in. He looked me up and down and I saw something flash across his face that I couldn't place. It almost reminded me of what he looked like when he was making a snare: deep in concentration but hungrier…

"You look amazing," he said, stalking up to me slowly and taking my hips in his big hands. "You're gorgeous without it, but you look pretty damn good with it."

I knew that was his way of complimenting me so I just smiled and stood on my tiptoes to press a kiss to his mouth. I thought it would be brisk and over quickly, but he seem to have other ideas. He pulled my body close to his and took advantage of my open mouth.

I let something like a whimper escape and felt my entire face turn red. Gale didn't seem to mind the sound because his hands trailed down further than usual and made the sound leave my mouth again. My body was heating up so quickly that I thought I'd gotten too close to the stove.

I pulled my mouth away to make sure I wasn't, but the heat was all from him. His rough lips scorching a path down my throat was the reason for the heat welling up inside of me. I don't know how far that would've gone if I hadn't started to smell smoke.

"Gale, what is that?" I slurred out through my heat-induced haze. Then I saw the flames coming from the stove, "Oh no, the soup's burning!"

Gale just looked confused so I pushed him away from me and grabbed a bowl to fill with water. I tossed it onto the flames, they went out but destroyed the soup in the process. I felt tears burning my eyes as I realized all of my hard work was ruined.

I heard a chuckle leave Gale's mouth and felt my tears overflow. He was making fun of me; he must've been making fun of me earlier, too. To him, making such a big deal out of a measly dinner must be ridiculous. This meal would've been too frivolous to him and Katniss. They grew up in District 12 where food was meager and tasteless; I must look like wasteful brat to him right now.

"Cory, what's wrong?" he asked, coming over to me and placing his hands on my waist. "It was just some dumb dinner; it's not a big deal."

"Maybe not to you, but it was to me!" I sobbed, literally getting hysterical over nothing. "I'm so stupid! I know Katniss hates me and thinks that I'm not good enough for you and I wanted to prove her wrong. The only thing I proved was that we're so different, too different! I practically made a meal straight out of the godforsaken Capitol even though you both hate it with a passion. I'm so stupid!"

I pushed his hands off me and ran into the bathroom. The ridiculous powder that I'd put on my eyes was running down my face, I'd splashed some of the crab onto my pretty white dress, and my hair had escaped from the intricate plait I'd placed it in earlier. I was a total mess and I'm sure Gale was second guessing every decision he's ever made that included me, especially the one about falling in love with me.

I sat on the floor and pulled my knees up to my chest as I continued to cry. Even after the Games, I could tell you the number of times I cried and show it on one hand. Yet, here I was sobbing like a baby over some burned soup. I just shook my head, it was so much more than that and I knew it. It was about all the things I'd shouted at Gale earlier in the kitchen: my fears of never being good enough for the ones that I loved.

I'd lost track of how long I'd been in the bathroom when I heard a quiet knock on the door. I sniffed a little bit and wiped my eyes before opening it a crack. I expected it to be Gale, but it was Peeta. He had a small smile on his face when our eyes met.

"Can I come in?" he asked, giving me a chance to say no.

I just nodded and scooted over so he could come into the bathroom with me. I remembered his leg and quickly shut the seat on the toilet in front of me. He smiled gratefully before sitting down on it and turning his body to face me. If it had been anyone else, I would've felt ashamed of what I looked like, but Peeta didn't make me feel like that. He made me feel like it was okay to be a little bit broken. He had a calming effect that I was very grateful for.

"I have them too, you know? The flashbacks of the arena, the ones that make you lash out," he said out of the blue. "Katniss doesn't understand them, she just tries to handle me the best she can. I feel bad when I have them now because she's pregnant, so I don't usually tell her."

"Finnick used to have them too, but he never told anyone other than me. I try to handle them like he taught me to, but sometimes it's too hard. I have to force myself to break away from them," I said, wiping my face messily. "I'm sorry dinner was such a bust. I tried really hard, but it all fell apart like usual."

"You and I have a lot more in common than you think, Coral. I know what it's like to try and compete with the person-you-love's bond with another," he said, sobering up quickly. "Katniss and Gale have something that we can never compete with, but that doesn't mean they don't love us in a different way."

"That's easy for you to say, she has your ring on her finger and you baby in her belly," I grumbled. "I know she doesn't think I'm good enough for him. She thinks I'm small and weak, too weak to be with Gale."

He just shook his head with a grin. "It's the exact opposite, actually. She was talking about how strong you were and how much you keep Gale in line on the way here. He really loves you, you know? I can tell by the way he talked about you when we came in earlier."

"He's not wrong, I do love you a lot," Gale's quiet voice said from the door. "I didn't mean to upset you; you just threw me for a loop saying all of that earlier."

"I think I'm going to go make sure Katniss leaves some cheese buns for the rest of us," Peeta smiled, getting up and heading into the kitchen, shutting the door back behind him.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, scooting over so his large frame could fit in the floor with me. "How did I throw you for a loop?"

"I just never thought it would cross your mind that you weren't good enough for me," he said, reaching up and wetting a rag that was sitting on the counter. "You're so much more than I deserve, Cory. You look so fragile, but you're the strongest woman I know. And as for being like Katniss, I wouldn't want you to be."

He was wiping the powder off my face when I asked, "What does that mean? You were in love with her for most of your life. Why wouldn't you want me to be like her?"

"I thought I what I felt for her was love, but you showed me that it wasn't. What I felt for her doesn't come close to what I feel for you, not even a little bit," he said, tossing the rag into the basket and moving closer to me. "I'd be lost without you, Cory."

"Even if my hair is falling down and I have soup stains on my dress?" I asked, moving to sit myself on his lap and look him in the eyes.

"Even more," he told me, pulling the pins out and letting my hair fall down around my shoulders. "But I like your wild curls better. Don't pull them back; don't try to change anything about you."

He slid his fingers into them and used them to anchor his mouth to mine. I smiled and kissed him back just as fiercely as we were kissing before the smoke and the hysterics. It didn't cause heat to stir in my tummy, but there was pleasant warmth radiating through me.

"Are we going to eat or are you going to keep kissing?" Katniss asked from the hall outside the bathroom. "I'm hungry and tired of waiting."

Pregnancy brought out the best in her, I see. "I forgot about the food! What are we going to eat?"

He must've sensed that I was about to get flustered because he held me tight and said, "That's where I was while Peeta was with you. I went and got food that I had Annie make earlier. I know how you are when you're flustered and figured something like this would happen. I figured a backup plan would be a good idea."

"What did you trade for it?" I asked, standing up and offering him my hand to pull him to his feet.

"Let's just say that Finn is going to be running through the house for the next little while," he told me, pressing his lips to the crown of my head.

I just laughed as we walked into the kitchen to eat the food that I _didn't _make.

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><p><strong>Thank you so much for all the follows and favorites, you guys! It means the world to me!<strong>


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